Hi, I tried using an email client over a year ago, and after trying almost all of them in the span of a week I gave up in frustration. Would anyone have a recommendation ? For an email client :
- That is actively maintained
- That is not controlled by a company that could pull a Mozilla on it (Thunderbird)
- That isn’t proprietary
- That doesn’t need 77 dependencies and 450 GB (WTF KMail 😭 )
- That is reasonably fast and light and not too bloated (I just want to read emails, I don’t need a full app suite…)
- That supports POP
- That supports writing HTML messages (sorry Claws, I really liked you but occasionally I kinda need to write formatted messages to preserve other people’s sanity 😅 )
- That supports reading HTML messages without showing the HTML version as attachments so that every single email has the paperclip icon and I can’t tell which messages have real attachments (Sylpheed I think ?)
- That supports MailDir format for portability (why isn’t it the default everywhere already instead of weird non-portable formats ? 😭 )
- If possible, that doesn’t have an interface that’s so awful it’s a pain to find anything (Thunderbird)
I also tested Geary and another one but I don’t remember much about it… I can’t find out whether Geary does support POP and maildir, its documentation page is… well it’s a list 8 lines long, but on a page called “Documentation” so it’s technically counts as documentation I guess ? 😅 https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Geary/Documentation
Any recommendation would be greatly appreciated !
Thunderbird. The “Mozilla problem” is greatly exaggerated and even if so, there are forks.
Thunderbird is independently developed from Mozilla and has been since 2020. It’s driven by the Thunderbird Council which is community elected. Its only link now with Mozilla Foundation is that it’s a financial subsidiary. But as others say, there’s also Betterbird if one still fanatically hates Mozilla.
Thunderbird has their own finances and operates quite independent from Mozilla. They make more money than any other project under Mozilla’s banner. Thunderbird is quite successful. And even if one day a problem occurs, one could still use a fork or switch to a different mail client. But I don’t see any problem coming, unlike with Firefox in example.
Oh that’s good to know ! Does this mean it doesn’t have the same annoying opt-out “features” than Firefox ? Like the sponsored links, the “privacy preserving” ads, and so on ? Also you said you can switch to a different client if something happens, but doesn’t Thunderbird use mbox which from what I understand is not portable to other clients ?
Thunderbird doesn’t have the same annoying stuff of Firefox, as far as I know at least. However, there is no guarantee that Mozilla wouldn’t force this on Thunderbird someday, even if Thunderbird operates mostly independent.
By switching to another client, I didn’t mean you can takeover your offline accounts and data to another client. Just meaning you can switch, as your mail accounts are not bound to any mail client. Unlike something like Photoshop in example, that was what I meant. There is fork Betterbird, in case Thunderbird decides to go wild (we can’t know that for sure). I did not look into it much, but I’m sure alternative forks that are compatible to the current Thunderbird profile (for import) will be available.
Cool if Thunderbird hasn’t gotten the same treatment as Firefox, I hope that continues (though I wouldn’t say I have much confidence in Mozilla not to muck that up too…) True you can switch, but you might lose all your previous emails if you have set up your client to use POP3 and it doesn’t save your downloaded emails in a format that is portable 😬 …which is exactly what I did when I tried Thunderbird a year ago 😑 That’s why this time I want to be less stupid and be sure I choose a client that supports MailDir
I kind of wonder who is behind the over exaggeration. People with real concerns or those that do not want strong open platforms. Too much controversy and bifriction and those that push it for their own ends are the enemy.
Same. There is an Android version now too.
I use Thunderbird and hate it. Full of bugs and cramdowns (not sure what the right term is) where they make a bad setting that you can’t undo. Also too difficult to find too many things. And way too many non-mail features. I haven’t bothered seeking a good alternative but Thunderbird leaves a lot to be desired. Forking isn’t likely to help much. It needs total replacement.
Betterbird